InspiredElectrons
Gardening
A Happy Garden
Mar 31st
Warning: lots of pictures in the post!
My garden is beautiful. Thanks to my awesome friends at my “Help Jenny With Her Garden” party, my garden is simply flourishing out in the front yard. I had a beautiful, bountiful harvest all during fall and winter, and I’m sad I didn’t document it very well. Here are the few shots I did happen to get on my iPhone:
Beautiful tomatoes all winter long
Baby carrots
Peas in a pod
Zucchini in December
Luffa gourds to luffa sponges
Now it’s spring and I’m waiting to harvest the last round of winter planting:
Oregon Sugar Pod Peas
Little broccoli offshoots
Red Creole Onions
Chard
More carrots :)
Cherry Tomatoes
New spring arrivals:
Tomato, eggplant and pepper seedlings
Rattlesnake bean blossoms
Sweet peas
Green-striped Cushaw squash seeds
New friends (due to an aphid problem):
How many ladybugs can you spot? (pun intended)
And lastly, flowers from the back porch that were just too beautiful to ignore:
Nasturtiums
Midnight-Velvet petunias
Sunflowers amidst weeds in my old garden area
I love my garden.
Project of the Week
Mar 26th
Actually, make that “Project of the Past Two Weeks”.
Tada! In case you’re wondering what it is, it’s a combo trellis for my garden (cucumbers and squash, specifically) and shade for our front door/window, which get quite toasty in the summer. I got the idea from here. Phil’s sister sent me that link last year and I found it tucked away in my “Projects” folder in Evernote. See, you just never know when you’re going to come back to something.
I started building the frame last Monday when Phil was out of town. Now while I enjoyed the freedom to do it completely MY way and not his super logical way, I did have to go back and undo things quite a few times. My biggest mistake, probably, was building half the frame indoors. Maybe.
At the time it made total sense to me. It kept me in the nice cool house. It was a bit warm outside, and I was being sun-cancer conscious and staying out of the harmful UV rays. But then I need to move it outside. All by myself. A big 7 foot by 8 foot frame. And no, I did not break anything. That was Phil’s first question when I told him my process.
Then I had to add on the other half. Many other “Oh crap, I should’ve done it that way” moments came to me during the rest of this. But I will save those for a conversation over wine.
Next step was painting a color that matched the house. It didn’t really turn out looking any different than the original wood color, but it does give a little bit more finished look to it. Then the rain/snow came last weekend and halted my progress. But Friday was beautiful outside so both Phil and I went to staple down the metal fencing wire mesh stuff. This was the whole point of this entire project – a trellis for my garden. The cucumbers and squash I plant are vining varieties and so will eventually climb and provide shade. Phil had the great idea of adding the shade cloth though. So back to Home Depot I went to get shade cloth. Then back another time to get those special fasteners for shade cloth that I thought I should get but decided I didn’t need them because we had a staple gun. (I was wrong, btw). And then back a 3rd time to get another pack because, again, I ignored that little voice of logic in my head that said, “Hmmm, maybe you should get two just in case”. Damn logic gets me every time.
Side note: We both, even in all Phil’s logical glory and super translucent skin, forgot to put on sunscreen. We totally fried. Now you see how genius it was of me to build the thing indoors.
Anyway, many more hours ensued between putting the entire thing into the ground, attaching the cloth, deciding to attach it up to the roof, perfecting it, etcetera, etcetera. Phil is still not done perfecting it, but I’m happy. I’m loving the shaded front porch and added privacy!
And here is a teaser for a very overdue garden post:
Red Creole Onions
New Garden Location = Success!
Oct 20th
The garden in the front yard is flourishing! I finally feel like a real gardener! Everything I planted is growing. I’m thinning plants. Already there are baby cucumbers. There is a nice butternut squash growing. I already harvested radishes. There are little and big sprouts of things everywhere!
Although, there is one problem in paradise. One side of my garden is not growing as well as the other. I know it’s not the sun or water, so it’s got to be the soil. My thoughts are either too much compost or not enough. Something ain’t right. So my first solution will be to get some good organic miracle grow soil and put it down. I’m not complaining, though!
So here are some pics of my first harvest. I had to thin out some of the greens, and the radishes were peeking their little tops above the soil, saying “pick me, pick me!”. So I did.
baby Red Russian kale and Cherry Bell radishes
baby kale, radishes, and TONS of baby bok choy!
See the basket of greens to the left in the pic above? That’s all bok choy.
Can’t wait to try out this recipe for Sausage, Potato and Kale Soup. And this Kale and Parmesan Frittata. Now to find recipes for bok choy!
Bountiful and Bountifail (Garden) Part 10
Jul 24th
Baby watermelon, along with baby bell peppers, are the cutest thing in the world! This is a Sugar Baby Watermelon. I’m so excited for these! Watermelon is my favorite fruit (and for those that know me, there is a very limited selection of fruit I like). This will only grow to about 8″, which I prefer. I can trellis it since the melons don’t get very heavy. It will also turn almost black when it’s ripe. I’m so excited! Oh, I said that already.
There is also another baby growing.
So tiny and fuzzy!
Last year I planted these, but they were shaded out by my over abundance of sunflowers. These guys want lots and lots of sun, and lots and lots of water. So this year I made sure to plant them in a mostly sunny area. I could’ve planted them somewhere sunnier, but it’s hard to judge the sunniest spots for the summer 3 months ahead of time. I planted these in March or April, and they take 85 days to maturity. That puts them about on schedule, maybe a little delayed due to the cool spring. They like the soil 80 degrees or above. So for these…bountiful!
Update: 8-13-11
After wondering why my melons were not growing and were a bit squishy to the squeeze, I learned that they were not pollinated. Sad day!!! No new babies since these either. Very sad day!
Bountiful and Bountifail (Garden) Part 9
Jul 22nd
Beans! Specifically, different varieties of green beans. I ain’t shellin’ no beans yet. The baby ones pictured are Romano Flat Italian Bush Beans. They are pretty much self explanatory. The other two types are Kentucky Blue Wonder Beans and Rattlesnake Beans. I’m most exited for the Rattlesnakes, because they are so unique looking!
I planted the beans in March. Beans sprout insanely fast. The problem with beans is the heat here. As soon as it heats up, they stop producing. So I started getting a few Romanos in May, but not many. I felt like I should’ve gotten a nice crop because the spring was so cool. I have yet to get any Kentuckys or Rattlesnakes. However, I didn’t plant the ‘Snakes until end of May. The Romanos are currently producing again, although those babies aren’t growing very fast. The Kentucky is flowering, but no sign of beans yet. The Rattlesnake started flowering last week, and the flowers are purple!
So pretty. I think these ones will do the best because they are getting shade right now, thanks to the neighbors shrub growing over our wall. They are also intertwining with the peppers and lemon cucumber, and those are all having a happy companionship right now. Last year I planted regular ol’ green beans, and had the same problem. They grew and grew and grew, and didn’t produce until fall, and then I had lots. I’m not sure what I’m doing wrong, but next year I will maybe try starting a few indoors in February. So with these my analysis is… Meh, neither. I’m not overly pleased with them, but I’m not mad at them either. The vine ones take up only vertical space. If I had known the bush beans were going to grow so slow, I maybe would’ve planted them in a different spot and planted less. I’m just neutral on this one.